The Blog of Camps Kenwood and Evergreen

Sunday's are an important day at our brother-sister overnight camp. After recharging our batteries by sleeping a little late, our campers then spend the morning working together in their cabins. First, everyone changes their sheets, and then we hold bunk meetings. These meetings are a time for each person living in the bunk to share their thoughts on the week. Our counselors, who have been trained to facilitate these conversations, asked each camper their opinion on the week. They used phrasing that hangs all around our community: What Went Well...Even Better If. The idea behind this is to help them frame their thoughts constructively, either identifiying what went well this week (so that it can continue) or articulating that something would be even better if it changed in a particular way. As a summer camp that teaches children 21st century skills like collaboration, effective communication and creative problem solving, these meetings are at the core of how we help our children learn and grow.

I know that I’m a very positive person. It goes with being a camp director. That said, today was a spectacular day at Camp, particularly in terms of our goals of teaching our campers non-cognitive skills like resilience, adaptability, collaboration, healthy risk taking and creativity. Where to begin…